Ahhhh...Spring!

Yes, it is here. I know the official first day of Spring was March 21, but I don't pay much attention to the calendar. For me, it's Spring when the snow is gone and it's warm enough to go outside without fifty thousand layers. I love Spring. It's like a fresh canvas or a blank piece of paper. The possibilities seem endless.

I was able to get out and do a little yardwork over the weekend, and I was upset to see that one of the shrubs we planted in the fall had died. It is odd to me that only one died. It's literally sandwiched between two identical plants. They received the same amount of sun. They received the same amount of water. So why did the one die and the other two survive? It's a mystery. At any rate, I was not happy about it. But I guess I shouldn't complain. We planted 27 shrubs and 3 trees, and this boxwood is the only one we lost.

I carefully planned our landscape project before planting. I researched what plants would thrive in certain locations. I measured out exactly how far apart to plant them. I read how-to books on caring for each different type of shrub. And after all of that, I began planting. I hate to think of what a mess it would have been had I just willy-nilly started digging and planting. I think the end result would have been a complete eye sore, and we would have lost a lot more than just one plant.

So, this brings me to the point of this post. I used to be an organic writer. I would just start writing, and I'd let the characters lead me through the story. Although the writing process was way faster, the end result was always an eye sore. It was a jumbled mess of scenes that didn't fit, characters that were ambling with no purpose, and story arc? Ha! Forget that! Writing organically might work for some people. But I have learned it does not work for me. My current project is one that I had a full outline to follow and deeply developed characters before I wrote even one sentence. I'm really glad I gave planning a try. It's working out much better than flying by the seat of my pants.

How do you write?